Obama-era goodwill for Rice at U.N.

NEW YORK — It is, says Susan Rice, "a good time to be American ambassador to the United Nations."

Rice, a foreign policy veteran at the age of 44, is positioned to be one of the administration's key national security voices. She has access to the president, a restored Cabinet seat and a place on the National Security Council's Principal's Committee. She's also broadened her Washington presence, with an expanded office at the State Department.

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Rice is, said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, "playing a central role in the team that's been assembled."

Perhaps more than any other American official, Rice also is negotiating day to day the meaning of President Barack Obama's promise of a new era in American foreign policy, one in which openness doesn't mean weakness and engagement can be combative.

Some of the earliest moves have been symbolic, like making the controversial decision to rejoin the troubled U.N. Human Rights Council — where, Rice said, the United States will battle "the anti-Israel crap." She also said the administration is still considering attending the controversial anti-racism conference this month, where U.S. pressure has won a "substantially improved" draft text.

On a larger scale, Rice has been part of a renewed push to end the killing in Darfur and an administration drive to prevent a North Korean missile test.

"There's just enormous goodwill and optimism," Rice told POLITICO. "I'd say even excessive expectations about President Obama and what his administration can bring."

Rice also forcefully rejected what has emerged as an early knock on Obama's foreign policy: that his team, notably Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has appeared to downplay human rights concerns, from China to Turkey to Egypt, in favor of more practical issues.

"The whole point is we need to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. We don't have the luxury of viewing every issue, every country, every challenge in black-and-white terms. That was, in my opinion, part of the fallacy of the Bush administration," she said. "But there are ways and means of accomplishing that. It's not always in every instance most productive to do it on a huge stage beating a drum — sometimes it is."

"Whether it's Russia or Egypt or China or Zimbabwe, strong advocacy for human rights and democracy will be part of our approach."

Rice is, in the meantime, settling into what one of her predecessors, Madeleine Albright, described to POLITICO as "one of the all-time great jobs — especially if you are working for a president who believes in having an approach that recognizes the importance of other countries." An assistant secretary of state for African Affairs under President Bill Clinton, Rice was an early foreign policy adviser to Obama.